Supply, Demand Up in Denver Rental Market

The average rent price decreased in the last two quarters of 2018 in Denver, with record unit absorption, according to the latest survey data from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

The average monthly rent hit a high of $1,484 in Q2 2018, went down to $1,465 in Q3, and in the fourth quarter was $1,456, a 1.9 percent drop for the past 6 months. Teo Nicolais, a real estate instructor at the Harvard Extension School in Denver, tells The Denver Post that rents are actually down 2.6 percent when adjusted for inflation. “We are seeing a ton of new supply and seeing rents go down. It is all about supply. That supply is what makes housing more affordable,” he said.

The vacancy rate rose from 5.5 percent in the third quarter to 5.8 percent in the fourth, which represents 20,237 empty units. By comparison, there were only 5,577 homes and condos for sale in metro Denver at the end of December, according to the DMAR.

Developers added 12,324 new apartments to the market last year, an annual volume that is three times greater than the historical average. Of those, 3,876 came just in the fourth quarter. After bottoming out at 4.6 percent in 2013, the vacancy rate has started to rise again, but remains a full percentage point below its long-term average of 6.8 percent, said Nicolais.

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